The 2023 Portland Book Festival, hosted by Literary Arts, returns Saturday, November 4 to eleven stages at seven partner venues in downtown Portland’s South Park Blocks. A new venue addition this year, The Judy Kafoury Center for Youth Arts (known as “The Judy”) and the new home of the Northwest Children’s Theater and School at 1000 SW Broadway, joins partners Portland Art Museum, Portland’5, Portland Parks Foundation, The Old Church, the First Congregational United Church of Christ, and the Oregon Historical Society for this city-wide celebration of books and stories. The Festival features curated author discussions and pop-up readings with over 100 local and national authors, as well as an extensive book fair and local food trucks. Michael Lewis and Viet Thanh Nguyen will appear in events at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (ticket required). Guest artist Arielle Wilkins provides this year’s original Festival artwork. Writing workshops for youth and adults will run online and in person throughout the Festival week. In addition, Portland Book Festival Cover to Cover, a week of free neighborhood literary encounters, takes place from October 30 to November 5 in multiple locations throughout the Portland area.
“As we continue to move through these strange and troubling times, we look to stories to heal and unite us,” says Andrew Proctor, Executive Director of Literary Arts. “Portland Book Festival’s programming this year reaffirms and expands our commitment to community and invites a diverse, intergenerational audience to engage around literature in ways that inspire conversation, understanding, and joy.”
Amanda Bullock, Senior Artistic Director at Literary Arts, says, “Literary Arts has been producing Portland Book Festival since 2015. We were thrilled to return to a fully in-person event in 2022, when many attendees told us that the festival made them ‘love Portland again.’ In 2023, we are once again looking forward to bringing our communities together in downtown Portland for a celebration of literature and storytelling; from poetry to picture books, from science to science fiction, from imagined worlds to investigative journalism, there is something for every reader at Portland Book Festival.”
View full author details here. Lineup and schedule are subject to change.
Information about how to volunteer is at pdxbookfest.org. For future updates, subscribe to the Literary Arts e-newsletter and visit pdxbookfest.org.
Our indie bookselling partners are Annie Bloom’s Books, Broadway Books, Green Bean Books, and Powell’s Books.
Literary Arts is pleased to present the following authors and their most recent titles on Saturday, November 4, 2023:
Fiction:
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars | Kathleen Alcott, Emergency | Naomi Alderman, The Future | Jazmina Barrera, Cross-Stitch | Patrick deWitt, The Librarianist | Debra Magpie Earling, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea | John Freeman, Freeman’s: Conclusions | Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare | Lydia Kiesling, Mobility | Angie Kim, Happiness Falls | E. J. Koh, The Liberators | Edan Lepucki, Time’s Mouth | Jonathan Lethem, Brooklyn Crime Novel | Ayana Mathis, The Unsettled | Tim O’Brien, America Fantastica | Curtis Sittenfeld, Romantic Comedy | Justin Torres, Blackouts | Luis Alberto Urrea, Good Night, Irene | Vauhini Vara, This Is Salvaged | Michelle Wildgen, Wine People | Alice Winn, In Memoriam
Nonfiction:
Aaron Adams & Liz Crain, Fermenter | Erica Berry, Wolfish | Cat Bohannon, Eve | Roz Chast, I Must Be Dreaming | Nicole Chung, A Living Remedy | Stacey Mei Yan Fong, 50 Pies, 50 States | John Freeman, Freeman’s | Santi Elijah Holley, An Amerikan Family | Sabrina Imbler, How Far the Light Reaches |
Mitchell S. Jackson, Fly | Kate Lebo, Pie School | Michael Lewis, Going Infinite (additional ticket required) | Navied Mahdavian, This Country | Hetty Lui McKinnon, Tenderheart | Viet Thanh Nguyen, A Man of Two Faces (additional ticket required) | Roger Reeves, Dark Days | Safiya Sinclair, How to Say Babylon | Angela Sterritt, Unbroken | Jane Wong, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City
Poetry:
Stephanie Adams-Santos, Dream of Xibalba | Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Quiet | Oliver de la Paz, The Diaspora Sonnets | Elisa Gonzalez, Grand Tour | Jane Hirshfield, The Asking | Major Jackson, Razzle Dazzle | Anis Mojgani, The Tigers, They Let Me | Jae Nichelle, God Themselves | Paisley Rekdal, West: A Translation | Charif Shanahan, Trace Evidence
Young Adult:
Jennifer Baker, Forgive Me Not | Kendare Blake, Champion of Fate | Jennifer Dugan, The Last Girls Standing | Courtney Gould, Where Echoes Die | Kim Johnson, Invisible Son | Kayvion Lewis, Thieves’ Gambit | Kelly McWilliams, Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay | Elizabeth Rusch, The Twenty-One |
Arya Shahi, An Impossible Thing to Say | Jen St. Jude, If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come
Middle Grade:
Breena Bard, Wildfire | Mac Barnett & Shawn Harris, The First Cat in Space and the Soup of Doom |
Eoin Colfer, Juniper’s Christmas | Jim Di Bartolo & Laini Taylor, Billie Blaster and the Robot Army from Outer Space | Arnée Flores, The Spirit Queen | Donna Barba Higuera, Alebrijes | Pedro Martín, Mexikid |
Rosanne Parry, A Horse Named Sky | Jewell Parker Rhodes, Treasure Island: Runaway Gold | Nisi Shawl, Speculation | Zachary Sterling, Mabuhay! | Jennifer Torres, Meet Me at Midnight
Picture Book:
Emily Arrow, picture book host | Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen, How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? | Andrea Beaty, Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year | Ben Clanton & Andy Chou Musser, Ploof | Amy Seto Forrester & Andy Chou Musser, Search for a Giant Squid | Andy Griffiths, The 156-Story Treehouse: Holiday Havoc! | Charise Mericle Harper, I Cannot Draw a Bicycle | Joanna Ho, Say My Name | Nikkolas Smith, The Artivist | Salina Yoon, Penguin and Ollie
Pop-up authors:
Joshua James Amberson, Staring Contest | Matilda Bickers, Working It | Rebecca Clarren, The Cost of Free Land | Zaji Cox, Plums for Months | Carla Crujido, The Strange Beautiful | Brennan DeFrisco, Honeysuckle & Nightshade | Incite: Queer Writers Read, with Dean Backus, Trystan Angel Reese, & Karelia Stetz-Waters | Tim Lane, The Neighbors We Want | Shilo Niziolek, Fever | Mary Rechner, Marrying Friends | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, Helen House | Charity E. Yoro, ten-cent flower & other territories | and more!
Thank you to our 2023 Portland Book Festival event sponsors
How to attend:
General Admission Festival passes* are $15 in advance and $25 at the door. Youth 17 & under, those with a valid high school ID, veterans, and active military receive free general admission. $5 Arts for All passes are available for those receiving SNAP benefits. Get your passes here. Special access to preview the Festival book fair at our Friday Night Book Market (limit 800) can be added to the General Admission pass for $25. Two Schnitzer Concert Hall special events featuring Viet Thanh Nguyen and Michael Lewis can also be added for $5 (reserved GA) or $30 (includes book) each. An Umbrella Pass ($100) includes the main Festival general admission, the book fair preview on Friday night, and tickets to both Schnitzer events. All general admission passes include admission to the Portland Art Museum; full-priced passes include a $5 exhibitor fair voucher. *Advertised rates do not include online processing and transaction fees for non-discounted purchases. Visit pdxbookfest.org for more information. Accessibility accommodations at the Portland Art Museum and Portland’5 theaters include public transportation near the venues, elevators in all multilevel event spaces; accessible sidewalks, pathways, and doorways; ADA-compliant restrooms and event spaces, accessible parking, available assistive listening devices, closed captioning on pre-recorded media, venue signage in Braille, and ASL interpretation with advance request. Contact Literary Arts with requests or accessibility questions at la@literary-arts.org.
Literary Arts is a nonprofit literary organization founded in 1984 and based in Portland, OR. Our mission is to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature. Programs include Portland Arts & Lectures, Portland Book Festival, Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships, writing classes, readers seminars, and programs for youth including Writers in the Schools, College Essay Exchange, and youth slam poetry programming. Our radio show and podcast, The Archive Project, can be heard on NPR affiliate station OPB Sundays at 7:00 p.m., or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more at literary-arts.org.
Media Contact: Heather Brown
heather@mindthebirdmedia.com
Website: pdxbookfest.org
Media Assets Folder > lit-arts.org/PBF23-Media
